Chapter 254: Medsang’s Myu (4)
“Iryn, why are you here? What about Yuhyun?”
Why would you leave unconscious Yuhyun behind and come to me, who is perfectly fine? Iryn climbed onto the back of my hand and lifted his head.
— Because I have to protect you, Hyung.
“As you can see, I have no problems at all. Go check on Yuhyun.”
— No. Iryn likes you a lot, Hyung, but Yuhyun is my favorite.
“…Then all the more reason for you to go to Yuhyun.”
— Hyung, Hyung. Yuhyun needs you to be happy! Iryn likes seeing Yuhyun smile. That’s why I have to protect you first.
As if wondering why I didn’t understand, Iryn tapped my hand with his front paw.
— Iryn cares most about Yuhyun’s happiness. You do too, don’t you?
“Of course. But Yuhyun’s safety is important too. He has to be alive to be happy.”
— Hyung doesn’t understand.
“Hey, what do you mean I don’t understand? You were just born not too long ago. Just go to Yuhyun already. I’m really fine.”
Iryn puffed out his cheeks sulkily and flicked his tail roughly. For a lizard, he sure had a lot of expressions.
— Yuhyun is fine too. He’s sleeping soundly.
“Really?”
— Yeah. He’s resting peacefully, so don’t worry. He’ll recover quickly and come to you.
That was unexpected. I was sure he’d be anxious.
“Noah… well, he seemed kind of cold. Is it really okay?”
— That’s why it’s reassuring, Hyung. He’s gotten stronger too.
“I-Is that so? I thought he’d hate him for only allowing me out.”
— Of course, he won’t let you be taken away! But someone who just curls up without even thinking about fighting is even more unreliable! If someone stronger than him attacks, he’ll lose you right away. How could I trust him with you?
Hmm, so my little brother prefers this version of Noah? …Well, I did get the feeling he was bothered by Noah being weak. Anyway, it was a relief that Yuhyun was sleeping well. Just as Noah had assured me, he hadn’t harmed him.
‘…But is Noah really okay?’
He had said he was the same, but honestly, it looked like this place had influenced him quite a bit. He seemed very different from the Noah I had known until now.
‘I can’t say the Noah I’ve seen is all there is to him.’
Looking back, I realized it was hard to say I truly knew Noah. I barely knew anything about his life before coming to Korea—what kind of guild leader he had been, what kind of hunter he was. I had avoided asking too much, afraid of touching his wounds from Liette, but in the end, I knew almost nothing.
I had simply thought of him as a young man who craved love.
“This is complicated.”
— What is?
“People. I really need to have a proper talk with him.”
Of course, before that, I needed to check on Yuhyun, Hyunah, and Sigma. I had to see with my own eyes that they were alright.
I pressed a button on the wall, and a polite voice spoke. When I asked to go see the people I had been with, I was told that I needed permission from Myu.
“Then please connect me to get permission.”
[That is currently not possible.]
Please wait a moment~ The voice sounded incredibly familiar. Like those automatic responses from customer service. And ‘please wait a moment’ usually meant n hours in these situations.
“Am I allowed to go outside?”
[If you wish, I will assign you a guide.]
More like a watcher. I replied that it was fine and then asked if there were any surveillance cameras in the room. The response was that there were none in the room, but there were cameras in the hallway. I see.
‘Environmental scouting should always be done stealthily.’
I started by examining the room. For being inside a warship, where space needed to be used efficiently, the cabin was quite spacious. There was a separate bathroom, and the bed was nice and soft.
“Iryn, can you keep moving around separately like this?”
— There are mana holes above and below. It’s enough for me here!
“Then can you check the hallway cameras for me? See if they capture the door opening.”
Iryn answered and then melded into the hallway wall. He returned shortly after and said the doorframe blocked the camera’s view.
“Thanks. Also, keep an eye out to make sure no one’s coming.”
— Okay!
Spirits were really useful. I activated my stealth skill and used a master key to unlock the door. As soon as I stepped into the hallway, a new quest appeared.
[Take a stroll on Medsang’s First Warship!
Medsang, known for its advanced auxiliary skill research, integrates security devices with auxiliary skills. Be careful not to trigger the security skills scattered throughout the area!
Reward: 10,000P]
So they used auxiliary skills for security? That could have been dangerous. Thanks for the heads-up, dear viewers.
— Iryn can sense them too.
When I mentioned the security skills, Iryn whispered softly.
— Since I’m a spirit, I’m more sensitive to mana!
“My Iryn is amazing.”
Iryn puffed up proudly and clung to my fingertip.
— We’re going to Yuhyun first, right?
“Yeah.”
— This way!
So convenient. Following Iryn’s lead, I walked down the hallway. I ran into a few people, but since they were below A-rank, they didn’t notice me.
In the distance, faint sounds of shelling echoed. It seemed another monster had appeared from the mana hole. Despite the continuous emergence of high-level monsters, the people inside the ship looked completely unfazed. They didn’t seem concerned about the monsters at all.
‘Did Medsang last the longest in this world?’
Achates was probably the first to fall. Even if monsters poured out from a mana hole in the center of the city like in present-day Achates, Medsang seemed to have held out well. If the monster ranks increased even further, it would eventually be breached, but for now, it was holding strong.
How high could the monster ranks go? This world had a far higher combat power than ours, yet it was still destroyed. That thought made my chest feel heavy.
‘At least most of the people around me are S-rank, so escaping should be possible.’
I looked at Iryn, who was guiding me from the back of my hand. Yuhyun wouldn’t leave me behind and run. That wasn’t even a question.
“Partner, I think we really do need to save this world. Make sure you come back with all your memories.”
If possible, I’d like to at least get a hint about what exactly those unfilial bastards want from me.
As I went down the stairs and turned into the hallway, I saw a door guarded by S-rank personnel. That had to be it. With security that tight, sneaking in was impossible. Should I just have Iryn check the situation inside instead?
“I expected this.”
“What─?!”
A low voice sounded directly behind me. Damn, that startled me!
“Who’s there!”
At my shout, the S-rank guards rushed toward us—then abruptly stopped and quickly bowed their heads.
“M-Myu-nim. Our apologies.”
“No, it’s my fault for suddenly appearing. Hunter Yujin, you can deactivate your stealth skill now.”
Turning to Noah, I canceled my skill. The S-rank guards immediately glared at me.
“I was just taking a walk and checking if everyone was okay.”
“We would have contacted you as soon as they woke up. Understood. Please, this way.”
Noah took the lead and started walking. He looked just like he did before. An S-rank guard quickly opened the previously closed door.
“Myu-nim, welcome.”
“Lanchea’s Lambda woke up a short while ago and went to eat.”
“Achates’ Alpha is still resting, as it seems best for them to continue sleeping. There are remnants of a toxin in their body that detoxification skills don’t work on—”
“Are they okay? Yuhyun, Alpha?”
There were still toxins left?! At my words, a man who looked like a healer nodded.
“Yes. We are currently neutralizing them. It would also be best to modify their engravings, but since that requires an anesthetic, we need to remove the toxins completely first. It should be done in an hour or two.”
“Thank you.”
Those bastards responsible for Achates’ Alpha… The ones who ran away needed to be captured too, but given the situation, there was no way to conduct a search.
“And… the remaining one…”
The Medsang medical staff exchanged glances. They seemed hesitant to even mention Sigma.
“There don’t appear to be any physical issues, but we have kept them in a sleep state.”
“‘Don’t appear to be’—does that mean you haven’t examined them properly?”
At Noah’s words, the medical staff hurriedly shook their heads.
“The basic checkup is complete! However, um… everyone reported feeling strange around them, so we checked for curses or other skills, but we couldn’t detect anything. It could be an extremely high-grade curse that is undetectable, so it would be safest to avoid approaching.”
It seemed they had mistaken their discomfort around Sigma as a curse. Noah assured them it was fine and entered the room with me.
“Did something happen to the Sesung Guild Leader?”
He lowered his voice, and I replied in a quiet tone.
“It’s not the Sesung Guild Leader.”
“What?”
“The face is the same, but it’s a different person. Seong Hyunjae is somewhere else right now.”
Noah’s eyes widened in shock. His current demeanor was exactly like before we came here.
“Then… don’t tell me, the Breaker Guild Leader and Hayeon… Well, Hunter Han Yuhyun is definitely real.”
“They’re both real.”
Noah swiftly dismissed the people around us. I briefly explained the situation to him—how we had to clear the dungeon and escape. I carefully watched his reaction as I spoke, but he simply listened with a serious expression. Just in case, I didn’t mention the disc.
“If you help us, we’ll be able to clear it much faster.”
“Of course, I’ll help.”
His answer came without hesitation. Could I trust him? No, more importantly, how had I even come to doubt Noah? It was common sense not to let SS-rank guards from another city in so carelessly. As the leader of Medsang, his decision had been completely logical.
…It was just that I felt disappointed and unfamiliar with this version of him. I had been too used to seeing him as young and weak. I took another good look at Noah standing beside me. Even if he was weaker compared to other S-rank hunters, he was still S-rank.
When our eyes met, his light purple gaze curved slightly.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Hunter Yujin?”
“No, uh… I think I’ve only ever seen you as a kid.”
“Huh? But I am young.”
That was true, but still—he used to ask to be doted on, tried to get a miniaturization skill just so he could stay in my house… Compared to that, he was completely different now.
Did he still want to come over? He didn’t seem the least bit interested in getting a miniaturization skill anymore.
Maybe it was just my own bias, and perhaps his behavior as Myu was also a part of who he really was.
“Yuhyun!”
As I entered the hospital room, I saw Yuhyun lying on the bed. An IV needle was inserted into his wrist. Just as Iryn had said, his complexion looked good. Even though this wasn’t his real body, wasn’t he suffering too much? My poor little brother.
Noah approached me as I settled into the chair beside the bed.
“The detoxification process will take some time, so you should eat something first. You haven’t been able to rest properly.”
“I’ll eat when my brother wakes up.”
A brief silence followed. Noah, who had been quietly watching Yuhyun and me, finally spoke.
“You would have liked Hunter Han Yuhyun no matter what kind of person he was, wouldn’t you?”
“Well…”
I was about to answer of course but the memories from before my regression made my tongue freeze. Unconsciously, I clenched my fist.
“Right now, yes. But whether it’s my brother or anyone else, if you don’t really know someone, you end up getting disappointed at some point. Now, I know my brother well—maybe not completely, but enough. So no matter what happens, I will always like him.”
Hearing my words, Noah looked surprised.
“You’ve been disappointed in Hunter Han Yuhyun before?”
“Mm, before I awakened, we weren’t on the best terms for a while. You probably don’t know, but after Yuhyun awakened, we were apart for quite a long time. To be exact, it was me misunderstanding things on my own.”
Yuhyun had always been the same. Truly.
“It’s strange hearing you say that, Hunter Yujin.”
“I’m just an ordinary person, you know.”
Really, I had just found my brother adorable. That alone had been enough to keep me going. But somehow, things had ended up like this.
“I’ve often wondered what it would have been like if you were my family instead.”
“Then you would have gained another cute little brother.”
“I was jealous of Hunter Han Yuhyun. I envied him. I even questioned why it had to be him. It felt similar to my older sister… like things had been reversed.”
Noah gave a faint smile.
“A Noah like this… isn’t very cute, is it? Hunter Han Yuhyun was always so confident in accepting me because he was the one loved most by you.”
“Noah…”
“But now, all of Medsang is looking at me. Even though it’s not real. I’m a fake. In the end, even here, I’m not truly loved. I keep coveting places that belong to others.”
I didn’t know what to say. I had never imagined Noah thought this way. Should I try to console him? As I hesitated—
“If Myu wants that seat, then try for it, C-rank.”
Sigma appeared in the open doorway, gazing coldly at Noah.
“If you admit you’re a fake, maybe you’ll get to stay here as Myu.”
…What kind of nonsense was that?
–TL Notes–
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